Digg founder Kevin Rose has teamed up with former rival Alexis Ohanian to buy the once-popular content aggregator as they bet on an artificial intelligence-powered revival of the platform that once drew around 40 million monthly visitors, Reuters reports.

Launched in 2004 by a then 27-year-old Rose, Digg was once called the "homepage of the internet" and was a rival to Reddit, a firm co-founded by Ohanian.

But the platform lost ground after its 2012 sale to New York-based tech incubator Betaworks. Microsoft's LinkedIn scooped up its most valuable assets, including patents. It has since pivoted to curating news.

Rose and Ohanian, who acquired Digg for an undisclosed sum, said they aim to revive the platform by leveraging their social media expertise and restoring its nostalgic early interface.

"Recently we've hit an inflection point where AI can become a helpful co-pilot to users and moderators, not replacing human conversation, but rather augmenting it," Rose said.

Justin Mezzell, a longtime collaborator of Rose with experience at Google and Facebook, will take over as Digg CEO.

The deal is backed by venture capital firms True Ventures, where Rose is a partner, and Ohanian's Seven Seven Six. Rose will be Digg's board chair and key advisor.